Music
Music is central to the creative life of the school. Weekly music lessons with a specialist music teacher, Mr Tama Nathan BMus, start from nursery and are a key part of our curriculum. Music lessons are rooted in theory with a strong emphasis on performance. From nursery through to Year 6, music lessons are designed to nurture and challenge all our children to become accomplished young musicians, sharing their achievements through regular individual and group performances.
Each week, children participate in whole school singing assemblies where they develop a range of voice and performance skills. Singing from an established repertoire, children will explore a broad and diverse range of songs and compositions that complement their wider creative curriculum. Read more about our music curriculum below.
In addition, the school has a strong extracurricular music offer.
Choirs
The Upper School Choir of boys and girls aged 8-11 performs to an extremely high standard and draws members from years 4-6. The choir rehearses weekly during term-time with our specialist singing teacher, Ms Georgia Duncan. Singers enjoy a very broad repertoire of sacred and secular songs and perform regularly in concerts at school and across London.
Entry is by audition and rehearsals take place weekly for 1 hour during term time.
The Training Choir is a singing group for girls and boys in school years 2-4 and is conducted by our singing teacher. It aims to encourage musical development for the future whether in choral singing or playing an instrument. The ambience is relaxed with the emphasis on enjoyment. A valuable stepping stone to the Upper School Choir.
Entry to the choir is by arrangement with our singing teacher or head of music at any time. There is no audition. Rehearsals take place weekly on Tuesday for 1 hour during term time.
Ensembles
Our extracurricular offer includes a variety of music ensembles that the children can join including our Charles Dickens Orchestra, Fagin’s Folk group and our percussion groups, the Bumbles. If you would like your child to join, please contact our Head of Music.
Instrumental Lessons
In addition, we offer specialist one-to-one and group instrumental tuition in guitar, piano and violin. We have highly experienced and dedicated team of peripatetic teachers who work with leading music colleges and orchestras from across the world. Our instrumental lessons take place during the school day and support children achieving recognised qualifications with The Associate Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
If you would like your child to be added to the waiting list for instrumental lessons, please contact the Head of Music at music@charlesdickens.southwark.sch.uk
